by Tim Blagge
I went on to explain all the other aspects and nuances of what Stella, Rolf and I heard and discussed.
“This entire project is going ugly places because of the greed and dishonesty of a few men,” groused Dr. Brooks. “Trying to dodge a major conspiracy like this is not what I signed on for. You two are single. I’ve got a wife and two kids to think about.”
“We thought you might feel this way so Stella and I have decided to keep you away from the technical part of the design,” I explained. “We will promote the idea that only Stella and I understand the project and science behind it. You will continue to do the administrative work and we’ll do the science. You will bring in the engineers and other support staff as required and we’ll decide on who is assigned which part of the project.”
“That makes me feel a little better,” said Dr. Brooks.
“There’s one more thing,” I added. “As a precaution please keep this tracking device with you at all times. It will enable us to find you if we need to. Everyone connected, either directly or indirectly with the project has one.”
Dr. Brooks took the device and put it in his pants pocket.
“Put on your personnel hat for a minute Dr. Brooks, I have a favor to ask of you.” I said. “When you need a person to do the accounting work, I want you to consider my girl friend’s mother. She is a CPA with solid experience and I know you could train her in the intricacies of government accounting. She and her husband are losing their retail business of twenty years because of the economy and Betty will need a job soon. I know her well and I think she’d be an asset. Here’s her number.”
“Thanks Bill, when we start to ramp up, we’ll need lots of positions filled,” said Dr. Brooks.
Stella and I went to our office. She ran her bug sweeper around the office and declared it clean. Then we recapped our situation.
“Assuming nothing changes, we will accept the Government’s offer to fund the project,” I said. “If we play too hard to get, it could trigger Cushing’s friends to launch their plan B which we want to avoid. We will create two sets of plans for the new anti-gravity device. One will work and one won’t. We will give our engineers design requirements for the new chips and pulse generators. We will have working chips and placebo chips that won’t work. Since the engineers won’t know which is which, they won’t be able to construct the device. In fact, in this way the engineers won’t know what the end product actually is.”
Dr. Brooks walked in and said. “Bill, one of Cushing’s assistants just called. He wants to make an appointment to remove the security devices from your barn. He also reconfirmed our meeting on Friday”
“Dr. Brooks, if you wouldn’t mind, call the guy back and have him call my grandfather. He’s usually there and will supervise the removal. And tell him we need everything removed before Friday.”
Dr. Brooks agreed and left. Then Stella said, “That was smart, Bill; it will give us time to sweep the barn before the meeting with Cushing. It might give us a little more negotiating strength if by some fluke his guys miss something.”
“OK, it’s time to go to work on the general plans for the device.” Stella said. “We need something to show Cushing when he gets here on Friday. You work on the real one. Let’s call it something like Atlas.”
“Atlas? Why not call it the Flying Wallenda?” I questioned.
“Bill, there’s only one Flying Wallenda and it’s destined for the Smithsonian. I thought since Atlas held up the world in Greek mythology, that name was appropriate.”
“You are right. I did hold up the world for seven tenths of a second didn’t I?” I mused.
“I’ll design the one that doesn’t work.” said Stella. “Between you and me we’ll call it something like ‘Toaster’ because it won’t do much.”
“Toaster it is,” I agreed. “And I’ll bet the money we spend building two units will be a tiny fraction of Cushing’s government estimate of hundreds of millions to build one.”
“It’s the government. They don’t care. It’s not their money they are spending,” said Stella.
“We’ve got lots to do so let’s get to work, Bill. We’ll order lunch in and compare notes at the end of the day”
About 3 PM my cell phone rang. It was Pops telling me that the Fed’s techs had just left and removed the surveillance equipment. Stella and I decided to go to the barn after work and see if it was cleaned completely. When we arrived, Stella told me to be quiet and we tiptoed in. She went directly to a far corner of the barn, reached behind a box and cut a wire on what looked like a tiny camera.
“OK” she said, “we can talk now.”
“How’d you know that was there?” I asked.
“You have forgotten that we installed counter surveillance equipment in your barn. Since I knew the Feds were going to remove their equipment today, I asked Rolf to watch them do it. They removed all the original stuff but installed this one. Rolf told me all about it as I followed you home.
“They have theirs behind this box. Can their camera see though low-density items like yours?”
“No, but look at the box; it’s on a pivot. When they hear something that they might want to see, the box pivots out of the way and they have both eyes and ears.”
“My God Stella, these corrupt morons will stop at nothing.” I said.”
Now let’s get Pops and have him help us put the Flying Wallenda back in the bomb shelter.” Stella said.
-22-
For the next couple days, Stella and I worked steadily on our projects and only spoke to compare drawings. By late Thursday, both Atlas and Toaster were ready for final a comparison. Stella looked at the drawings on my computer and I looked at hers.
“Stella, your drawings look just like mine. Oh I see them now, little changes here and there. Stella this won’t work!” I quipped.
“You are brilliant my young friend, just brilliant.” Stella said smiling.
Then Stella looked at my drawings and commented, “This looks correct Bill. Go ahead and copy it onto this drive and wipe any evidence of it from the hard drive on your main computer.”
Stella handed me a device that looked like a tiny zip drive. “I have never seen anything like this before Stella. How does it work?”
“I’m not sure. You know Rolf has nothing but cutting edge hardware in his arsenal. That’s the reason he’s been so successful at what he does. The beauty of the device is that we can erase it by remote control if it ever fell into the wrong hands.”
“Wow, I am starting to think the government is under matched against you, Stella.”
“I’m just trying to stay ahead of their game Bill. And I’m not one to believe in intuition, but I keep getting this sinking feeling that there are other elements closing in on us.”
“Like what,” I asked.
“I don’t know yet. Let’s take this device to Rolf. He’ll know where to hide it. Are you ready to leave lover boy?”
“Those words are music to my ears;” I confessed “Does that mean I should pick something up for dinner?”
“Yes,” Stella answered.
“Go ahead young lady. I’ll lock up and be right behind you.”
When I walked out the door, there it was!
The brown van that had been seen around the parking lot raced up to Stella and slammed on the brakes. A man wearing a ski mask jumped out and grabbed Stella from behind. I took off running toward the van knowing that I had to get there and save her.
Before I got there, Stella gave her assailant two hard elbows to his rib cage. She wheeled around behind him and got him in some kind of half nelson hold. The man screamed but broke free. With one arm hanging limply, he grabbed her with his good arm and again tried to get her into the open van door. Just as I arrived, she extricated herself from his grasp and crashed her foot down on his knee. I heard the sound of a bone breaking, an accompanying scream and the sound of squealing tires. The accomplice was gone and left his partner in crime lying on the pavement moaning, “Get m
e an ambulance.” He spoke with a Hispanic accent.
I got the license number of the van and called 911. The police arrived within a couple minutes with the ambulance was not far behind. The EMT’s immobilized the man’s injuries, loaded him in their vehicle and took him to the hospital. One of the policemen went with him. Two other squad cars arrived with several more cops. One of them came over to me and wanted a statement.
“You really made a mess of that guy didn’t you, Mr. Burton. I’ll bet he’s sorry he tangled with you!” The policeman said.
“Thank you officer but I had nothing to do with it. Dr. Morton here kicked that guy’s ass all by herself. I don’t know if it was an attempted rape or something else but she does know how to defend herself.” I said.
“Dr. Morton, are you alright?” The policeman asked.
“Only a scratch or two but I think I’ll live.” Stella responded.
“I know you both want to get home so we’ll send a detective over here tomorrow to take your full statements.” But for now, did either one of you know this man or have you ever seen him before?”
”No and no Officer, I can’t say that I have.” Replied Stella
“We all saw the van around here a couple of times during the week and we were a little suspicious,” I added “but this was really unexpected.”
“Thank you both,” said the officer. “You know it’s almost humorous. This sick fool was probably looking for some happy time and for his effort be got two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a knee that bends the wrong way. I bet he’s not feeling so happy now.”
“Stella, you probably want to skip tonight. I fully understand if you do.” I said.
“No Bill, I’m fine. We need to discuss all this with Rolf. He doesn’t get overly invested in many of his cases because he considers them to be just another job. But our growing mystery is intriguing him much more than usual. Believe me, this is great news for us.”
After I knocked on the door, Stella let me in. She had on another shift like dress that fit just tight enough to show off her fabulous figure. “I’m nominating you for the sexiest woman on the planet.” I declared and then I noticed Rolf sitting on the couch working on some other device. “Oops, sorry Rolf, I didn’t see you sitting there.”
“No worries Bill”, he said. “It looks like things are heating up out there. I’m glad I insisted Stella take self defense lessons when she was younger. You never think you need those skills until you do.”
“She can definitely take care of herself both mentally and now physically.” I commented. “I’ve asked her before if there was anything she couldn’t do. Her answer was ‘probably’ but I think she’s underestimated herself. Rolf what do you think about what occurred today?”
Rolf chuckled and declared that the situation had become more serious in his opinion
“Cushing’s leak has brought people out of the woodwork. The criminal element sees an opportunity to cash in and it’s just the beginning.”
“Cushing wore the same suit today as last Friday so I’ve heard some of his conversations.” Rolf continued. “Most was drivel but he did make one comment to Waterman. Let me play it for you.”
“Waterman that leak about the time shift device you spread last week has backfired. I’m getting intel from all over about different groups trying figure out if a device really exists and if they can get their hands on it. There are some good guys and bad guys chasing this. What seemed like a clever idea at the time could cost us big. Tomorrow we need to tie up our geniuses and get them working for us before someone else enters the picture. And we’d better get some security out there. The stakes are high and we can’t afford to lose either Burton or Morton.”
“At least these idiots recognize themselves for the idiots they are,” I commented. “What’s our strategy for tomorrow Stella?”
”No real change except one,” Stella commented. “We listen to their proposal, give them pained looks, go out and mull everything over, make any necessary adjustments and go along with the government.”
“What’s the one change?” I asked.
“The security issue could create a problem.” Stella commented. “You know whoever they assign to us will be strictly observers for Cushing and his group. Knowing Cushing and Waterman, any security they assign to us will probably will be worthless if we really do need protection.”
“Stella, Rolf I have a great idea. Let me tell you about it.” I said.
-23-
I got home from Stella’s about four in the morning. I figured I’d catch about a two hour nap before I had to get up. Just as I was going to sleep, the phone rang. It was Inspector Jackson from the Pasadena Police Department.
“Is this William Burton III?” he asked.
“Yes it is officer.” I answered
“I called to inform you that the suspect who assaulted your colleague in JPL’s parking lot yesterday was just found dead in his hospital bed. He came through surgery just fine so we are treating this as a homicide. Our statement from you will take a little longer than we thought yesterday. I just informed Dr. Morton. She told me that you both have a meeting with the Federal Government this morning so we will be there about three this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll know more by then.”
“Thank you for the call, Inspector.” I said in stunned disbelief and hung up.
I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. After about forty minutes of contemplating my probably short life span, I got up, showered and went to work.
I rolled up about 6:30 AM and Stella was just getting out of her car.
“Couldn’t sleep either Mr. Burton?” Stella asked.
“Not a wink Dr. Morton. What’s your take on the murder of the guy you beat up yesterday?”
“Nothing good Bill, nothing good!” Stella answered.
About 7 AM Stella’s office phone rang. She put it on speaker.
“I am looking for a Dr. Stella Morton and/or a William Burton”
“Who’s calling please?” I responded.
“This is Forest Buckholder from General Kinetics.”
“The Forest Buckholder?” I asked.
“Yes,” came the answer.
Forest Buckholder was a U.S. citizen who was born in Britton and came to the U.S. in his teens. He was considered by the financial and industrial world to be a shrewd and clever businessman. He started with very little but through hard work and crafty acquisitions had grown his companies into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. He had a reputation for being determined and fair when he sensed an opportunity.
“Well if you are not an imposter, we are both here.” I said. “I am a little surprised you are making your own phone calls. What can we do for you for you Mr. Buckholder?”
“Rest assured I am who I say I am,” he said. “In matters as important as this I always make my calls personally. Let me be brief. I know you are meeting with some Government officials today. Do not sign anything. Whatever they offer you I’ll do better and you will be happier and safer too. From now on, call me Forest.”
“Forest, how did you find out about us?” Stella took over with her usual confidence. “And let me tell you that our goal is not to sell to the highest bidder. It’s to create the most benefit for the planet.”
“Lofty goals Dr. Morton,” said Buckholder. “And to answer your question, the Government is like a colander, a leaky boat if you please. Water, or in this case information enters in large quantities at the top and is dispersed in a bunch of small quantities at the bottom. We catch what we can and it’s usually all we need. And let me address your other concerns.”
“I am the chosen leader of a consortium of companies in addition to my own who together will be best able to develop your creation and provide the most common good.”
“And make a few bucks along the way,” I added.”
“Of course, Mr. Burton, Making money for our stockholders is our ultimate goal. But if your device delivers as advertised, it will cause huge shift
s in the marketplace. These shifts must be managed to avoid economic turmoil. We can do that. The government can’t. My partners, like me are industrialists. We make money by producing products and services that people want. We don’t make money by moving it around like the banks and we don’t make money by overtaxing and over regulating people like the government. I admit we are far from perfect, but the group I have assembled will be able to manage the transition as smoothly as is humanly possible. And we will keep you safe while we do it.”
“Mr. Buckholder we’ve got to run,” Stella said. “It sounds like you are aware that our meeting with the Feds is in about an hour. Based on what you’ve told us, we need time to reconsider our position. Forest, you have a reputation for being a tough yet fair businessman. I hope we can trust you.”
“Dr. Morton, you don’t know me but I am a man of my word. The people you are about to meet with however cannot be trusted and we feel they have already put you in grave danger.”
“We are fully aware of that fact,” Mr. Buckholder,” said Stella. Please give us your number and we will respond to you as soon as we make a decision.”
“Oh boy,” I griped, “Just what we need, another complication.”
“Bill, unless you object, I’m going to have Rolf come over right now to fill him in on what just happened.” Stella said. “I don’t think we can trust the phones right now. We need to discuss this face to face.”
When Rolf arrived, we filled him in on the new developments.
Rolf said in his usual concise way. “Don’t sign anything on behalf of the government yet. Use the fact that you found the new spy equipment in the barn to buy more time. I have a new listening device that’s smaller. Try to position it in one of the screw holes in the foot of Cushing’s brief case. He won’t find it there. Insist on substantial and immediate security for yourselves and your loved ones even though you have no written agreement. This situation has gotten out of control; Cushing knows it and he will gladly provide security. He can’t afford to lose you two.”